This article is within the scope of WikiProject Transport, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles related to
Transport on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join
the discussion and see a list of open tasks.TransportWikipedia:WikiProject TransportTemplate:WikiProject TransportTransport articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Trains, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to
rail transport on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can visit the
project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the
discussion. See also:
WikiProject Trains to do list and the
Trains Portal.TrainsWikipedia:WikiProject TrainsTemplate:WikiProject Trainsrail transport articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Highways, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of
highways on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join
the discussion and see a list of open tasks.HighwaysWikipedia:WikiProject HighwaysTemplate:WikiProject HighwaysHighways articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Law, an attempt at providing a comprehensive, standardised, pan-jurisdictional and up-to-date resource for the
legal field and the subjects encompassed by it.LawWikipedia:WikiProject LawTemplate:WikiProject Lawlaw articles
I do apologize. I was cleaning up the
Right-of-way disambiguation page and I created this page to fill in what seemed to be a hole. I wasn't sure where the category came from and deleted it when I made some other minor edit -- I never imagined that someone else had already edited this page!
Ewlyahoocom00:01, 16 February 2006 (UTC)reply
Hello. I'm looking to fill out the
Right-of-way disambiguation page. I am looking for an article that covers these long strips of land for use in railroads, highways/interstates, canals, etc. Is there a catch-all phrase for that kind of strip of land? Let me guess... right-of-way? Any others? Thanks!
Ewlyahoocom00:08, 16 February 2006 (UTC)reply
From
Sprint Nextel Corporation: Southern Pacific Communications Company (SPCC), a unit of the Southern Pacific Railroad began offering their dial-up service shortly after the Execunet II decision late in 1978. The Railroad had extensive rights of way that could be used to lay long-distance communications. ... Some claim it was an acronym for "Southern Pacific Railroad Information NeTwork"...
From
Qwest: Founded in 1996 by Philip Anschutz, Qwest began in a very non-conventional way. Anschutz, who owned almost all of the railroad companies in the Western United States... began installing the first all-digital, fiber-optic infrastructure along his railroad lines...
After reading that, I've removed the link. While the fiber-optic lines are laid along railroad rights-of-way, that's their only connection to the term in this context. The lines are laid because of an
easement. Maybe if there were more to the article than what we have now, there would be room for a reference to them (as part of a section on other uses of an ROW), but as it stands now, there isn't context to make Sprint Nextel appear relevant to "strip of land granted to a railroad company upon which to build a railroad."
LrdChaos20:54, 16 February 2006 (UTC)reply
I've added a section to the article titled "alternate uses" which lists a few of the other things that go along rights-of-way; I've also restored the wikilink to Sprint Nextel with a short bit of text about why they're relevant to this.
LrdChaos21:22, 16 February 2006 (UTC)reply
So are we going to add links to every other telecommunications company out there? Because they all use the easements... not just Sprint. As do natural gas companies and other utilities...
Ahockley22:57, 16 February 2006 (UTC)reply
I don't believe that listing this one means we should list them all, because of the "Southern Pacific Communications Company" part of Sprint.
LrdChaos19:29, 17 February 2006 (UTC)reply
Not sure why this was re-added, but I've removed it again for the above-listed reasons (not notable, relevance isn't adequately explained, etc.)
218.214.199.6807:50, 19 August 2007 (UTC)reply
I'm a little confused as to what the subject of this article is, but I'm presuming that its primary focus is on rail rights of way (it's described as a Wikiproject trains article), and that the discussion of pedestrian rights of way should be dealt with in
Right of way (public throughway). There is another article that deals with highways,
Rights of way (traffic). Perhaps there's confusion here because of differences in usage between the UK and
Republic of Ireland, and the USA? Unless anyone objects I will delete the Irish section -- I've already copied it to Right of way (public throughway). The ambiguity in the preamble to the article will also need to be corrected.
Rwood128 (
talk)
14:23, 5 February 2014 (UTC)reply
Rights of way (traffic) has nothing to do with the rights of way for establishing highways, rather it is about the priority traffic direction for classes of traffic. (ie. a traffic light that gives priority turning over straight ahead traffic, reserved bus lanes) --
65.94.171.126 (
talk)
23:28, 3 July 2014 (UTC)reply
Confusing lede
I'm afraid that the lede is rather confusing in attempting to differentiate 'right-of-way' and 'right of way' - are we sure that there is not variation in styling in different countries anyway? The
disambiguation page seems to suggest so.
Geopersona (
talk)
08:09, 6 November 2023 (UTC)reply
Hyphens
I would like to suggest that the confusing hyphens be removed from this article's title, along with necessary revision to the lede as follows:
*This article focuses on a type of
easement granted, reserved, or purchased across private or public land for highways, railways, canals, as well as electrical transmission, oil and gas pipe lines. In the case of an easement, it may revert to its original owners if the facility is abandoned. The term "right of way" is also used to denote the land itself, such as the strips of land along a
railroad track on which railroad companies own a right of way easement.
I little research suggests that the phrase is sometimes hyphenated but that there is no consistencies, other than that the hyphenated version seems to more generally used in North America (
Webster) and the unhyphenated version is commonly used in Britain (see
[1].
As the unhyphenated version is also used in N. America, for the sake of consistency (see
Right of way) I will therefore remove the hyphens from this article, unless objections are raised.
Rwood128 (
talk)
15:30, 22 May 2024 (UTC)reply
Both versions are used in Canada. The government appears to use the unhyphenated version, while the Canadian version of the OED gives the hyphenated version:
Goverment of Canada;
OED Canadian version.
New Zealand: A Google search suggests that the unhyphenated version is most common here.
HI
162 etc., You have had sufficient time to object to the proposed change. I also indicated on the
Right of way page, earlier, that I planned to edit this article.
With regard to the name change discussion, as far as I can see that topic is dormant – though I did make an attempt to revive it.
Right of way is a separate (if related) article from this one and my edit did not interfere with that discussion. I merely removed the hyphens for the sake of consistency. As the above indicates I thoroughly researched this matter. At the very least you should have responded to the above – even if you were late – before reverting.
1. My objection is that "Right of way" and "Right-of-way" as a sort of
WP:NATDAB is currently being discussed at
Talk:Right of way. That discussion should play out, and a consensus reached, before hyphen-related edits to this or related articles are made.
2.
There is no deadline. "You have had sufficient time to object to the proposed change" is not something that is supported by any Wikipedia policy or guideline.
3. So far, nobody has participated in the above discussion but you. That's not a consensus. I urge you to be more patient as the community considers and discusses these points. Thank you for your ongoing contributions to the encyclopedia.
162 etc. (
talk)
21:58, 25 May 2024 (UTC)reply
You were advised 20 May of my intent on the Right of way Talk page, also,
162 etc.. Can you take charge re the change of name for
Right of way? There appears to be a consensus for action, though no name has been designated. I haven't yet checked the previous name change discussion in 2014, I have to admit.
Rwood128 (
talk)
11:56, 26 May 2024 (UTC)reply
I'd like to revert
162 etc.'s edit here. My reasons are indicated above. The removing of "hyphens", was so that the spelling of this article matched other similarly named ones. However, this is a fairly minor matter, so I will happily await the resolution to the discussion re name change, before acting.
Rwood128 (
talk)
15:50, 28 May 2024 (UTC)reply
A comment was made on 6 June on
Talk:Right of way: "Neither should have hyphens in it, because those only pertain to use as a compound modifier per MOS:HYPHEN (e.g. in 'a right-of-way dispute', but 'a dispute about right of way'; same as 'a common-law principle' vs. 'a principle in common law')". This would seem to resolve this matter,
162 etc.. A note on this should be included in all related articles.
I'm not in favour, or against, hyphenation. What I'm objecting to is the change being made while the discussion at
Talk:Right of way is ongoing. When a consensus is reached there, it will also affect this article. Note that one commenter's interpretation of the MOS is not automatically gospel. Let's wait.
162 etc. (
talk)
20:48, 11 June 2024 (UTC)reply
This article is about a restricted right to access for a specific purpose. The section "Public trails by land and water" belongs in
Right of way (public throughway). I propose to remove it or have I misunderstood a some aspect of US law that is not obvious to a UK editor?
𝕁𝕄𝔽 (
talk)
11:09, 13 June 2024 (UTC)reply
I'm not a lawyer, so you may well be right! Though, certain public rights of way are established through legislation and others through regular, unimpeded use over a number of years. I saw a parallel here with other kinds of rights of way, such as railroads and utility corridors. Railroads are, however, private property.
I grew up in England but have lived for much of my life in Newfoundland, Canada, the most British/Irish part of North America. The US law with regard to rights of way appears to be rather different from that in the UK – and Europe. And I suspect that this maybe a source of confusion re Wikipedia's articles on this topic (and amateurs, like me, meddling in legal matters).
Rwood128 (
talk)
11:43, 13 June 2024 (UTC)reply
The topic is covered well in the thoroughfare article, so I will remove it from this one. The status of railways is a little anomalous: I can't see that they belong here either since they own the land they are on. I am inclined to remove them too when I figure out where best to direct readers - not that any would start from this article, I strongly suspect. --
𝕁𝕄𝔽 (
talk)
12:58, 13 June 2024 (UTC)reply
So railroads differ from electric grids, piplelines, highways, etc.? Hope you have a legal background
𝕁𝕄𝔽. Can you please clarify.
Yes, yes and no. A pipeline under or a power line over my farm does not deprive me of beneficial use of my land for farming at least. Indeed (depending on jurisdiction) I can probably charge rent for the privilege and almost certainly can charge for loss of use during construction and reinstatement even if (at least in England and Wales) the infrastructure operator has a
statutory right to insist. If a highway or railway line needs to cross my land,
eminent domain (compulsory purchase) will be used whereupon it ceases to be my land and the question of rights or easements becomes irrelevant. So "stands to reason" rather being able to quote subsection of any law. So I can't add anything to that effect without a
WP:RS.
I am about to ask at
talk:Railway line whether they can find a better home for the US usage. I notice that the UK usage,
permanent way, redirects there.
As it stands and despite the opening sentence, in reality most of this article is concerned with the usage of the term "right of way" in US railway terminology. Apparently this is very much current usage terminology in the US (per hatnote above), so satisfies
WP:GNG. The only part of the article that deals with right of access for infrastructure networks (under or over private land) is the lead section, but that content is a
WP:CFORK of
Easement#Wayleave.
So my proposal is this:
move (and thus rename) this article to become
Right of way (railroad) (not "railway", since it is most relevant to US usage.
delete the entire lead as it stands, with the possibility of copying the deleted content to
Easement#Wayleave of anything lacking there.
the revised article will thus begin from the current section head #Rail right of way. From the discussion at the glossary talk page, there is quite a lot more to be said about the topic.
The sentence or two in the current lead about permitted access to land with no road frontage is a very minor item that can be found a home in the "Right of way (footpaths, cycleways, bridleways and canoe-ways) article when a suitable name for it has been hammered out.
TYVM, yes, I plan to do that but I thought it best to test the water first, as I don't want to spend a lot of effort on the wrong proposal. --
𝕁𝕄𝔽 (
talk)
22:04, 14 June 2024 (UTC)reply
A bot will list this discussion on
requested moves' current discussions
subpage within an hour of this tag being placed. The discussion may be closed 7 days after being opened, if consensus has been reached (see the
closing instructions). Please base arguments on
article title policy, and keep discussion
succinct and
civil.
Rights of way exist for more than just railroads, some examples I can think of are roadways, high-voltage electrical lines, and pipelines, both above and underground. I don't think it's appropriate to make the article exclusive to rail use, though I agree that the "permitted access to land with no road frontage" should be elsewhere. That discussion of these other forms of rights of way is absent doesn't mean it shouldn't be included in this article, it simply means no one has done so yet.
Trainsandotherthings (
talk)
23:12, 23 June 2024 (UTC)reply
@
Trainsandotherthings: Perhaps I should have introduced this RtM by explaining that it is part of clearing up some anomalies created when the (charitably speaking)
wp:broad concept article about "Right of way" was changed to a disambiguation. See
talk:Right of way (public throughway)#Requested move 14 May 2024) I was not a party to that discussion and its outcomes but I certainly agree with its analysis.
Why,
𝕁𝕄𝔽, should this article be changed so that it only focusses on railroads and not all easements "granted, purchased, or reserved over land for transportation purposes". I do not understand the logic here, unless, maybe, the law surrounding canals, pipelines, etc, is significantly different from that for railways? Also what about
national hiking and cycling trails created by government agencies? How do they significantly differ in law from rail rights of way. Some old rail rights of way have been converted into
rail trails. We really need a lawyer to clarify these questions.
I agree with Rwood128 that this isn't a satisfactory change. There does not seem to be any good reason to ignore that the same right of way concept applies to other forms of transportation (and hiding them in a disambiguation page and saying they don't matter here is not an answer). So I oppose the move.
Trainsandotherthings (
talk)
13:47, 24 June 2024 (UTC)reply
@
Rwood128:, if we ignore the
wp:cfork of
Easement#Wayleave that takes up the lead (but has no corresponding body content, contrary to
WP:LEAD), the article as it stands seems to be entirely about the US railroad meaning. (In the UK, the land occupied by roads, railways and canals is state property and is not a "right of way" as that term is defined in UK law.) The article is definitely not about property access, so the name needs to be changed. I have no objection to "land grant" if that idea attracts more support (not that "railroad" has any support yet!).
@
Trainsandotherthings:, sorry but I fail to see how that response is relevant to a discussion that is primarily about renaming this article. It reads to me that you want to reopen the decision to convert
Right of way from a broad concept article to a disambiguation article, with the content dispersed into a number of subsidiary articles. If that is so, you need to initiate a new debate at
talk:Right of way. It certainly makes no sense to attempt to circumvent the decision by back-filling each subsidiary article with material copied from the others. Of course I may have completely misunderstood your point, which would make sense if public highways are deemed in US law to be rights of way over third-party land, rather than being state property as is the norm in Europe. If that is the case, would "land grant" fit the bill? -
𝕁𝕄𝔽 (
talk)
17:25, 24 June 2024 (UTC)reply
𝕁𝕄𝔽 the article did originally contain brief (undeveloped) mention of other commercial rights of way. This element was not expanded and appears to have been deleted recently. I don't support the idea of making this article exclusively about railroads. I imagine that there is an interesting relationship between canal rights of way and the subsequent development in the 19th century of railroads, and so on.
Rwood128 (
talk)
22:53, 24 June 2024 (UTC)reply
I have no objection to that idea, my initial choice of name was influenced by the fact that the current content is only about railways in the US (ignoring the cfork). So your Mission Impossible is to come up with a more encompassing name and to add material about canals and any other routes where the original land owner retains an interest. (I'm intrigued by the canals: I took it for granted that the only reason that their promoters required an Act of Parliament was so that they could use compulsory purchase powers that are reserved to organs of the state. I await enlightenment.)--
𝕁𝕄𝔽 (
talk)
23:06, 24 June 2024 (UTC)reply
I've just come upon the term "statutory right of way" – see (Canada)
[2]. And
[3]. And Australia
[4]
I'm no expert on canals and presumed, without further research, that there was similar legislation for the subsequent development of railways, at least in Britain.
Rwood128 (
talk)
23:26, 24 June 2024 (UTC)reply
It occurs to me that the only part of this article that is actually about property access is the sentence or two about the right [the easement, in law] of the owner of a property without road frontage to cross the property of another to access it. We really need to resolve its name. (Or delete everything that is off-topic!) --
𝕁𝕄𝔽 (
talk)
13:03, 25 June 2024 (UTC)reply
That would recombine this and the "throughway" articles again, defeating the decision to unbundle. I also think it too broad a title, since there are so many statutes in so many jurisdictions.
How about
right of way (easement) which I think captures your idea but limits its scope. It also encompasses my railroad idea but broadens it to encompass related ideas. Such as canals and power lines. --
𝕁𝕄𝔽 (
talk)
13:43, 25 June 2024 (UTC)reply
@
Rwood128:, I'm coming round to the idea of semi-reverting to a single article (
Right of way (thoroughfare)?) that combines all forms of transit rights. As it is, we are duplicating a lot of info between the two articles. If we have two articles, the distinct purpose of each should be obvious but it is becoming less so as we go on. (The "rules of the road" topic is clearly distinct.) But different classes of highway (footpath, bridleway, carriageway) are not distinct enough for separate articles in respect of their RoW status. (I have an impression that a footpath across a field of growing wheat is uniquely English. I know for sure that it doesn't exist in France, Italy, Ireland or Spain, where walkers depend on country lanes.
𝕁𝕄𝔽 (
talk)
21:12, 25 June 2024 (UTC)reply
I support your suggestion. I only associate paths across cornfields with the
Home Counties, There are footpaths and bridleways in Europe, and probably across cornfields in France, at least.
Rwood128 (
talk)
10:45, 26 June 2024 (UTC)reply
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Transport, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles related to
Transport on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join
the discussion and see a list of open tasks.TransportWikipedia:WikiProject TransportTemplate:WikiProject TransportTransport articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Trains, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to
rail transport on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can visit the
project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the
discussion. See also:
WikiProject Trains to do list and the
Trains Portal.TrainsWikipedia:WikiProject TrainsTemplate:WikiProject Trainsrail transport articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Highways, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of
highways on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join
the discussion and see a list of open tasks.HighwaysWikipedia:WikiProject HighwaysTemplate:WikiProject HighwaysHighways articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Law, an attempt at providing a comprehensive, standardised, pan-jurisdictional and up-to-date resource for the
legal field and the subjects encompassed by it.LawWikipedia:WikiProject LawTemplate:WikiProject Lawlaw articles
I do apologize. I was cleaning up the
Right-of-way disambiguation page and I created this page to fill in what seemed to be a hole. I wasn't sure where the category came from and deleted it when I made some other minor edit -- I never imagined that someone else had already edited this page!
Ewlyahoocom00:01, 16 February 2006 (UTC)reply
Hello. I'm looking to fill out the
Right-of-way disambiguation page. I am looking for an article that covers these long strips of land for use in railroads, highways/interstates, canals, etc. Is there a catch-all phrase for that kind of strip of land? Let me guess... right-of-way? Any others? Thanks!
Ewlyahoocom00:08, 16 February 2006 (UTC)reply
From
Sprint Nextel Corporation: Southern Pacific Communications Company (SPCC), a unit of the Southern Pacific Railroad began offering their dial-up service shortly after the Execunet II decision late in 1978. The Railroad had extensive rights of way that could be used to lay long-distance communications. ... Some claim it was an acronym for "Southern Pacific Railroad Information NeTwork"...
From
Qwest: Founded in 1996 by Philip Anschutz, Qwest began in a very non-conventional way. Anschutz, who owned almost all of the railroad companies in the Western United States... began installing the first all-digital, fiber-optic infrastructure along his railroad lines...
After reading that, I've removed the link. While the fiber-optic lines are laid along railroad rights-of-way, that's their only connection to the term in this context. The lines are laid because of an
easement. Maybe if there were more to the article than what we have now, there would be room for a reference to them (as part of a section on other uses of an ROW), but as it stands now, there isn't context to make Sprint Nextel appear relevant to "strip of land granted to a railroad company upon which to build a railroad."
LrdChaos20:54, 16 February 2006 (UTC)reply
I've added a section to the article titled "alternate uses" which lists a few of the other things that go along rights-of-way; I've also restored the wikilink to Sprint Nextel with a short bit of text about why they're relevant to this.
LrdChaos21:22, 16 February 2006 (UTC)reply
So are we going to add links to every other telecommunications company out there? Because they all use the easements... not just Sprint. As do natural gas companies and other utilities...
Ahockley22:57, 16 February 2006 (UTC)reply
I don't believe that listing this one means we should list them all, because of the "Southern Pacific Communications Company" part of Sprint.
LrdChaos19:29, 17 February 2006 (UTC)reply
Not sure why this was re-added, but I've removed it again for the above-listed reasons (not notable, relevance isn't adequately explained, etc.)
218.214.199.6807:50, 19 August 2007 (UTC)reply
I'm a little confused as to what the subject of this article is, but I'm presuming that its primary focus is on rail rights of way (it's described as a Wikiproject trains article), and that the discussion of pedestrian rights of way should be dealt with in
Right of way (public throughway). There is another article that deals with highways,
Rights of way (traffic). Perhaps there's confusion here because of differences in usage between the UK and
Republic of Ireland, and the USA? Unless anyone objects I will delete the Irish section -- I've already copied it to Right of way (public throughway). The ambiguity in the preamble to the article will also need to be corrected.
Rwood128 (
talk)
14:23, 5 February 2014 (UTC)reply
Rights of way (traffic) has nothing to do with the rights of way for establishing highways, rather it is about the priority traffic direction for classes of traffic. (ie. a traffic light that gives priority turning over straight ahead traffic, reserved bus lanes) --
65.94.171.126 (
talk)
23:28, 3 July 2014 (UTC)reply
Confusing lede
I'm afraid that the lede is rather confusing in attempting to differentiate 'right-of-way' and 'right of way' - are we sure that there is not variation in styling in different countries anyway? The
disambiguation page seems to suggest so.
Geopersona (
talk)
08:09, 6 November 2023 (UTC)reply
Hyphens
I would like to suggest that the confusing hyphens be removed from this article's title, along with necessary revision to the lede as follows:
*This article focuses on a type of
easement granted, reserved, or purchased across private or public land for highways, railways, canals, as well as electrical transmission, oil and gas pipe lines. In the case of an easement, it may revert to its original owners if the facility is abandoned. The term "right of way" is also used to denote the land itself, such as the strips of land along a
railroad track on which railroad companies own a right of way easement.
I little research suggests that the phrase is sometimes hyphenated but that there is no consistencies, other than that the hyphenated version seems to more generally used in North America (
Webster) and the unhyphenated version is commonly used in Britain (see
[1].
As the unhyphenated version is also used in N. America, for the sake of consistency (see
Right of way) I will therefore remove the hyphens from this article, unless objections are raised.
Rwood128 (
talk)
15:30, 22 May 2024 (UTC)reply
Both versions are used in Canada. The government appears to use the unhyphenated version, while the Canadian version of the OED gives the hyphenated version:
Goverment of Canada;
OED Canadian version.
New Zealand: A Google search suggests that the unhyphenated version is most common here.
HI
162 etc., You have had sufficient time to object to the proposed change. I also indicated on the
Right of way page, earlier, that I planned to edit this article.
With regard to the name change discussion, as far as I can see that topic is dormant – though I did make an attempt to revive it.
Right of way is a separate (if related) article from this one and my edit did not interfere with that discussion. I merely removed the hyphens for the sake of consistency. As the above indicates I thoroughly researched this matter. At the very least you should have responded to the above – even if you were late – before reverting.
1. My objection is that "Right of way" and "Right-of-way" as a sort of
WP:NATDAB is currently being discussed at
Talk:Right of way. That discussion should play out, and a consensus reached, before hyphen-related edits to this or related articles are made.
2.
There is no deadline. "You have had sufficient time to object to the proposed change" is not something that is supported by any Wikipedia policy or guideline.
3. So far, nobody has participated in the above discussion but you. That's not a consensus. I urge you to be more patient as the community considers and discusses these points. Thank you for your ongoing contributions to the encyclopedia.
162 etc. (
talk)
21:58, 25 May 2024 (UTC)reply
You were advised 20 May of my intent on the Right of way Talk page, also,
162 etc.. Can you take charge re the change of name for
Right of way? There appears to be a consensus for action, though no name has been designated. I haven't yet checked the previous name change discussion in 2014, I have to admit.
Rwood128 (
talk)
11:56, 26 May 2024 (UTC)reply
I'd like to revert
162 etc.'s edit here. My reasons are indicated above. The removing of "hyphens", was so that the spelling of this article matched other similarly named ones. However, this is a fairly minor matter, so I will happily await the resolution to the discussion re name change, before acting.
Rwood128 (
talk)
15:50, 28 May 2024 (UTC)reply
A comment was made on 6 June on
Talk:Right of way: "Neither should have hyphens in it, because those only pertain to use as a compound modifier per MOS:HYPHEN (e.g. in 'a right-of-way dispute', but 'a dispute about right of way'; same as 'a common-law principle' vs. 'a principle in common law')". This would seem to resolve this matter,
162 etc.. A note on this should be included in all related articles.
I'm not in favour, or against, hyphenation. What I'm objecting to is the change being made while the discussion at
Talk:Right of way is ongoing. When a consensus is reached there, it will also affect this article. Note that one commenter's interpretation of the MOS is not automatically gospel. Let's wait.
162 etc. (
talk)
20:48, 11 June 2024 (UTC)reply
This article is about a restricted right to access for a specific purpose. The section "Public trails by land and water" belongs in
Right of way (public throughway). I propose to remove it or have I misunderstood a some aspect of US law that is not obvious to a UK editor?
𝕁𝕄𝔽 (
talk)
11:09, 13 June 2024 (UTC)reply
I'm not a lawyer, so you may well be right! Though, certain public rights of way are established through legislation and others through regular, unimpeded use over a number of years. I saw a parallel here with other kinds of rights of way, such as railroads and utility corridors. Railroads are, however, private property.
I grew up in England but have lived for much of my life in Newfoundland, Canada, the most British/Irish part of North America. The US law with regard to rights of way appears to be rather different from that in the UK – and Europe. And I suspect that this maybe a source of confusion re Wikipedia's articles on this topic (and amateurs, like me, meddling in legal matters).
Rwood128 (
talk)
11:43, 13 June 2024 (UTC)reply
The topic is covered well in the thoroughfare article, so I will remove it from this one. The status of railways is a little anomalous: I can't see that they belong here either since they own the land they are on. I am inclined to remove them too when I figure out where best to direct readers - not that any would start from this article, I strongly suspect. --
𝕁𝕄𝔽 (
talk)
12:58, 13 June 2024 (UTC)reply
So railroads differ from electric grids, piplelines, highways, etc.? Hope you have a legal background
𝕁𝕄𝔽. Can you please clarify.
Yes, yes and no. A pipeline under or a power line over my farm does not deprive me of beneficial use of my land for farming at least. Indeed (depending on jurisdiction) I can probably charge rent for the privilege and almost certainly can charge for loss of use during construction and reinstatement even if (at least in England and Wales) the infrastructure operator has a
statutory right to insist. If a highway or railway line needs to cross my land,
eminent domain (compulsory purchase) will be used whereupon it ceases to be my land and the question of rights or easements becomes irrelevant. So "stands to reason" rather being able to quote subsection of any law. So I can't add anything to that effect without a
WP:RS.
I am about to ask at
talk:Railway line whether they can find a better home for the US usage. I notice that the UK usage,
permanent way, redirects there.
As it stands and despite the opening sentence, in reality most of this article is concerned with the usage of the term "right of way" in US railway terminology. Apparently this is very much current usage terminology in the US (per hatnote above), so satisfies
WP:GNG. The only part of the article that deals with right of access for infrastructure networks (under or over private land) is the lead section, but that content is a
WP:CFORK of
Easement#Wayleave.
So my proposal is this:
move (and thus rename) this article to become
Right of way (railroad) (not "railway", since it is most relevant to US usage.
delete the entire lead as it stands, with the possibility of copying the deleted content to
Easement#Wayleave of anything lacking there.
the revised article will thus begin from the current section head #Rail right of way. From the discussion at the glossary talk page, there is quite a lot more to be said about the topic.
The sentence or two in the current lead about permitted access to land with no road frontage is a very minor item that can be found a home in the "Right of way (footpaths, cycleways, bridleways and canoe-ways) article when a suitable name for it has been hammered out.
TYVM, yes, I plan to do that but I thought it best to test the water first, as I don't want to spend a lot of effort on the wrong proposal. --
𝕁𝕄𝔽 (
talk)
22:04, 14 June 2024 (UTC)reply
A bot will list this discussion on
requested moves' current discussions
subpage within an hour of this tag being placed. The discussion may be closed 7 days after being opened, if consensus has been reached (see the
closing instructions). Please base arguments on
article title policy, and keep discussion
succinct and
civil.
Rights of way exist for more than just railroads, some examples I can think of are roadways, high-voltage electrical lines, and pipelines, both above and underground. I don't think it's appropriate to make the article exclusive to rail use, though I agree that the "permitted access to land with no road frontage" should be elsewhere. That discussion of these other forms of rights of way is absent doesn't mean it shouldn't be included in this article, it simply means no one has done so yet.
Trainsandotherthings (
talk)
23:12, 23 June 2024 (UTC)reply
@
Trainsandotherthings: Perhaps I should have introduced this RtM by explaining that it is part of clearing up some anomalies created when the (charitably speaking)
wp:broad concept article about "Right of way" was changed to a disambiguation. See
talk:Right of way (public throughway)#Requested move 14 May 2024) I was not a party to that discussion and its outcomes but I certainly agree with its analysis.
Why,
𝕁𝕄𝔽, should this article be changed so that it only focusses on railroads and not all easements "granted, purchased, or reserved over land for transportation purposes". I do not understand the logic here, unless, maybe, the law surrounding canals, pipelines, etc, is significantly different from that for railways? Also what about
national hiking and cycling trails created by government agencies? How do they significantly differ in law from rail rights of way. Some old rail rights of way have been converted into
rail trails. We really need a lawyer to clarify these questions.
I agree with Rwood128 that this isn't a satisfactory change. There does not seem to be any good reason to ignore that the same right of way concept applies to other forms of transportation (and hiding them in a disambiguation page and saying they don't matter here is not an answer). So I oppose the move.
Trainsandotherthings (
talk)
13:47, 24 June 2024 (UTC)reply
@
Rwood128:, if we ignore the
wp:cfork of
Easement#Wayleave that takes up the lead (but has no corresponding body content, contrary to
WP:LEAD), the article as it stands seems to be entirely about the US railroad meaning. (In the UK, the land occupied by roads, railways and canals is state property and is not a "right of way" as that term is defined in UK law.) The article is definitely not about property access, so the name needs to be changed. I have no objection to "land grant" if that idea attracts more support (not that "railroad" has any support yet!).
@
Trainsandotherthings:, sorry but I fail to see how that response is relevant to a discussion that is primarily about renaming this article. It reads to me that you want to reopen the decision to convert
Right of way from a broad concept article to a disambiguation article, with the content dispersed into a number of subsidiary articles. If that is so, you need to initiate a new debate at
talk:Right of way. It certainly makes no sense to attempt to circumvent the decision by back-filling each subsidiary article with material copied from the others. Of course I may have completely misunderstood your point, which would make sense if public highways are deemed in US law to be rights of way over third-party land, rather than being state property as is the norm in Europe. If that is the case, would "land grant" fit the bill? -
𝕁𝕄𝔽 (
talk)
17:25, 24 June 2024 (UTC)reply
𝕁𝕄𝔽 the article did originally contain brief (undeveloped) mention of other commercial rights of way. This element was not expanded and appears to have been deleted recently. I don't support the idea of making this article exclusively about railroads. I imagine that there is an interesting relationship between canal rights of way and the subsequent development in the 19th century of railroads, and so on.
Rwood128 (
talk)
22:53, 24 June 2024 (UTC)reply
I have no objection to that idea, my initial choice of name was influenced by the fact that the current content is only about railways in the US (ignoring the cfork). So your Mission Impossible is to come up with a more encompassing name and to add material about canals and any other routes where the original land owner retains an interest. (I'm intrigued by the canals: I took it for granted that the only reason that their promoters required an Act of Parliament was so that they could use compulsory purchase powers that are reserved to organs of the state. I await enlightenment.)--
𝕁𝕄𝔽 (
talk)
23:06, 24 June 2024 (UTC)reply
I've just come upon the term "statutory right of way" – see (Canada)
[2]. And
[3]. And Australia
[4]
I'm no expert on canals and presumed, without further research, that there was similar legislation for the subsequent development of railways, at least in Britain.
Rwood128 (
talk)
23:26, 24 June 2024 (UTC)reply
It occurs to me that the only part of this article that is actually about property access is the sentence or two about the right [the easement, in law] of the owner of a property without road frontage to cross the property of another to access it. We really need to resolve its name. (Or delete everything that is off-topic!) --
𝕁𝕄𝔽 (
talk)
13:03, 25 June 2024 (UTC)reply
That would recombine this and the "throughway" articles again, defeating the decision to unbundle. I also think it too broad a title, since there are so many statutes in so many jurisdictions.
How about
right of way (easement) which I think captures your idea but limits its scope. It also encompasses my railroad idea but broadens it to encompass related ideas. Such as canals and power lines. --
𝕁𝕄𝔽 (
talk)
13:43, 25 June 2024 (UTC)reply
@
Rwood128:, I'm coming round to the idea of semi-reverting to a single article (
Right of way (thoroughfare)?) that combines all forms of transit rights. As it is, we are duplicating a lot of info between the two articles. If we have two articles, the distinct purpose of each should be obvious but it is becoming less so as we go on. (The "rules of the road" topic is clearly distinct.) But different classes of highway (footpath, bridleway, carriageway) are not distinct enough for separate articles in respect of their RoW status. (I have an impression that a footpath across a field of growing wheat is uniquely English. I know for sure that it doesn't exist in France, Italy, Ireland or Spain, where walkers depend on country lanes.
𝕁𝕄𝔽 (
talk)
21:12, 25 June 2024 (UTC)reply
I support your suggestion. I only associate paths across cornfields with the
Home Counties, There are footpaths and bridleways in Europe, and probably across cornfields in France, at least.
Rwood128 (
talk)
10:45, 26 June 2024 (UTC)reply